Over recent years the National Health Service has undergone many changes, one of the most important being the development of purchaser/provider roles. From April 1993 district health authorities (DHAs) and general practitioner fund holders (GPFHs) have been able to choose from which provider to purchase their adult psychiatric out-patient services. While discussions on how to attract and keep the contracts from DHAs and GPFHs have been underway at a managerial and consultant level, we believe that the potential role of a key player for hospitals, the psychiatric medical secretary, has been overlooked. This paper examines the secretarial role in the context of the ‘new’ health service.